A seminary philosophy professor writing for the Catholic Times'
opinion page recalls eating out with an older priest friend and laughing
at his humorous story about a grandmother who was making it known that
when she dies she wanted to have her ashes scattered from the roof of a
department store. She spent so many pleasant hours there with her
friends, shopping, eating, talking, drinking coffee making many
things possible for her. Sadly, he says, this thinking is a self portrait of our
present reality.
Enjoyment and happiness are so
interwoven in our lives it's difficult to distinguish between them. It's true
that enjoyment can be a part of happiness, however, unfortunately few
have little idea of what Aristotle considered necessary for happiness:
virtue and contemplation is what satisfies.
Shopping is enjoyable and doesn't harm anyone and can be done alone; a
way for many to unload much of the stress that comes with daily living.
Consumerism is a way of exhibiting property and values of society. He
uses the words of a French philosopher who considers production
of goods not as important as consumption. In our
present society consuming is a symbol. For many, what they buy is
not what they need but a means of drawing attention. We need to buy brand
names, expensive, but the reason to buy them. This gives one
pleasure and a reason to separate oneself from others.
In
the consumer society it is not the use of the product but its
symbolic value determining our place in society and the standard of
happiness. When others have that sign in their possession and we don't
we feel like outcasts; not able to follow the crowd we feel downcast.
Possessing
these symbols we provoke the envy of others, moreover, with these
symbols we have the illusion that we are happy, and have joined the class
of the elite and are now the envy of all.
Koreans up
until a few years ago, more than material wealth considered sharing
of affection, warmth with neighbors and family in society of great
value. Sacrifice was not considered an aberration; tenderness was not
considered foolishness. To fight for truth was considered noble. We
remember these times in the recent past but now only a nostalgic
longing.
Devotion arising from our religious feelings is no longer
common. True happiness is not related to contemplation, and the
propensity to have it slide in the direction of enjoyment and
consumerism is only natural. Members of society are raising up temples with department stores. He concludes the
article asking the readers to again recall the true
values that God has given us, and begin following them in the new
year. Happy Lunar New Year.
Even among Catholics we still have about one out of four who have
participated in some superstitious practice, and close to one of
three who have no problem with fortune telling. President of a Catholic
College writes in the Kyeongyang magazine on the way he sees the issue
and what has to be done.
In the Catechism of the Church
#2116: "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan
or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to
'unveil' the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading,
interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance and
recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history,
and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to
conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and
loving fear that we owe to God alone."
'Begging for blessings' is a type of religious faith that those who indulge in superstitious practices find attractive. Many who have studied the issue have made known the problems and reasons for them.
First,
we have little Christian understanding, lack of trust and reliance on God, and no identity and confidence. Secondly, the
feeling of loss in an insecure society, Church's failure to
present mercy and consolation, and to speak about the the harm of superstitious practices, are reasons for their prevalence.
Our writer
finds reasons for the continuation of this fortune telling culture as
related to Christians' understanding of being led by the Spirit. Koreans
see divination and looking for blessings as their
search for elegance and elation. Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity
have as their bed rock shamanism.
Koreans in their religious feeling believe something is moving them. Theologically, we Christians, call this the Spirit. The writer feels that more than wanting to know
the future those that go to fortune tellers are seeking to be led by
truth and the Spirit of God.
It is not easy for a Korean
Christian to experience God and following Jesus they always feel
something missing.They want to be led by the Spirit and truth and they
do not find this experiencing of the Spirit so they substitute it with
fortune telling and asking for blessings.
He concludes
the article by suggesting the way to lessen the hold of divination and
looking for blessings is to deepen the faith of the Christians in the role of the
Spirit in life by prayer.
In Korea, we have many who desire to become disciples of Jesus and are baptized, happy to be called brothers and sisters. However, once baptized there is a concern on how to address one another. A religious sister writing in View from the Ark column of the Catholic Times deals with the conundrum some Christians face.
She mentions that in Korean culture from the long past, calling a person by their name is not something that agrees with Korean sensibilities or ways of behaving. When we are dealing with seniors and persons with a higher position, it's nearly impossible to call them by their given name. Consequently, a person is called by their office or position: teacher, president, director, chairmen and the like.
This very fact goes to show that we are not on equal footing, she says. Age and position are what is important. Meeting for the first time we have to determine who is older or younger, so we will know how to address them. We find it difficult to call a person by their name alone: a sign of impoliteness and disrespect. This is true even within the church community.
She wonders if Jesus would be happy with the situation that we have in the church. Poor, and those with difficult jobs are intimidated when they come to church. Not once in their lives have they had a job in which they would have a leadership position, or work that was respected.
We are all brothers and sisters within the church community, equal and with no highs or low, this is also expressed in the liturgy. And yet within the community we have those who if not called by their titles think etiquette is breached, and feel diminished in the eyes of others. In Korean church beginnings, we had nobles, commoners and slaves all sitting and eating together and calling each other brothers and sisters. We are no longer living in Chosen Dynasty times, and yet rarely use our given and baptismal names when addressing each other, but titles of rank or work.
She concludes with a strong wish that we begin using in the community the names we were given by our parents and the baptismal name we received when baptized. She would like priests and religious to be the first to show us by example: calling the parishioners by their baptismal name preceded by brother or sister.
"You all wanted to go play in the water, why aren't you coming in?"
Words of the father of Han Pia, at water's edge. "Because it's cold," was the children's answer."
"How
do you know that without entering the water and seeing for yourself. Come on in,
if too cold you can always return to the shore." These words of her father, she has never forgotten, and writes in With Bible magazine that she often uses the same words with others, a valuable gift from her father.
Han
Pia is principal of the World Vision School of Global Citizenship, and writes about her experience, and what she has
learned. For 6 years with a knapsack she has traveled around the world,
and experienced many difficulties. According to a Korean proverb, she recalls,
when young these difficulties in old age would be worth even paying for them.
On one transcontinental train trip from
Moscow to Beijing she traveled for 7 nights and 8 days. After that trip
she has never complained of a long, tiring trip. In China she was
on a train that was crowded, like the subways in Korea around the New
Year, and she had to stand all the way for 30 hours.
In
India she was sick from food poisoning and her whole body was a rash, making matters worse, she was attacked by mosquitoes and bedbugs
which made her feel as if she was in a bee hive, her whole body
smarting and swollen. On another occasion she was taking antimalarial medicine and the reaction to the medicine was nausea, and couldn't
eat for two weeks.
She thought walking for 10
hours was her limit, but she did on one occasion walk for
15 hours which raised her expectations. She has extended this in
mountain climbing to 22 hours, and now wants to test her body for another
longer mountain climbing experience.
Recently she met
a woman who had walked a mountain trail for 30 hours. She envied the
woman and made up her mind this new lunar new year to make the same trip.
She doesn't know if her knees will hold up, but she will not know until she tries.
She
recommends to the readers of her article to do something during the new year which they would ordinarily consider difficult but a good, and
have so far avoided. They will gain confidence, strength and courage,
helping them face the difficulties that come along in life.
One of the frustrations, teachers' experience is misunderstanding, or the failure to sympathize with what is being conveyed. Society always has had prophets or whistle blowers, bringing to our attention activities or ways of thinking that are not those of the majority and consequently, not easily accepted.
Lady Justice holds balance scales in her hands, and eyes blindfolded so as not to be swayed by personal feelings. In With Bible magazine, the writer in his article titled 'Broken Scale' feels that our society's fairness is slanted in one direction, towards the one percent of the world made up of the strong and wealthy. This small number's high-handed manner is not criticized, and we are blind to what is going on. The scale is seriously broken.
When a lawyer some years ago was a whistle blower on corruption in one of the industrial giants, it was only the priests for justice who sided with him. He brought his message to the newspapers, but they all treated him coldly. They knew that they would lose income from advertising. He was a well-known lawyer and had information that few others would have available and yet society made him out as a Don Quixote and isolated him. Many turned against him and because of regional prejudice that was added to the opposition, justice was not achieved and he returned to his hometown a broken man: similar to the lives of the prophets of the Old Testament.
A small group within the church have opposed the priests for justice and have expressed this loud and clearly. They have put pressure on the church to do something with these priests. The writer makes clear that not all that is done by these priests needs to be accepted without criticism, but it is a lack of reason when you let some small errors of judgment on their part, in the eyes of some, close the eyes of society to big evils.
The scale of justice needs to be fixed. He mentions a number of professors who maintain the central point in justice is impartiality. The church should be working in its prophetic role as a leader to fix the scale of justice. Social irregularities and unfairness in society need to be addressed. This is the concern of the Church, a present and future subject and Gospel message.
What is meant by justice? We need to think deeply and work to achieve it in our lives. If we make-believe the scale of justice is in good order, and we remain concerned only about what profits us, we are not living as Christians. We need to go about fixing the scale, and concludes with the hope we will work to do this during this new Lunar Year.
Joy and Hope booklet from the Institute of that name, mentions in one of the articles, encyclicals of the last few centuries, and Pope Francis' Laudatio Si. They restate the Church's understanding of the social gospel and our Christian values.
Personalism and concern for the individual are all important, and the author mentions the work of a number of priests who were leaders in the co-operative movement: Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta in the town of Mondragón, Rev. Michael Coady and Jimmy Tomkins in the Antigonish Movement in Canada, and in 1890 the movement by Don Lorenezo Guetti the first cooperative founded in Trentino, Italy.
He then introduces us to Peter Maurin: Prophet in the Twentieth Century, a book translated into Korean last year. He was a founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in the United States with Dorothy Day and was considered Dorothy's mentor. He failed in many of the programs he tried to implement but left behind round-table-discussion groups, houses of hospitality, farming communes, and other programs. He died a pauper but is respected as an outstanding Catholic layperson.
He was born in France and joined the Christian Brothers. He left them and was attracted by the Sillon Movement in France, which aimed to bring Catholicism closer to the ideals of the French Republic, but he left them because of their lack of concern for what he thought was the spiritual. His call to military service and his opposition to war prompted his leaving of France for Canada and later for the United States where he worked in the movement for Catholic workers with which he was familiar in France.
He lived a very difficult and poverty filled life. He found the church in the United States lukewarm, and receiving no help began a house of hospitality for ten women without homes as a cooperative. He joined Dorothy Day, a journalist, a woman with radical ideas with whom he began the Catholic Worker newspaper which used the encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, and In the 40th Year an encyclical issued by Pius XI as resource material for their paper.
Briefly, he was against all movements and systems from above that used force and was promoting movements that relied on personal responsibility. He would be considered a Catholic anarchist by many for he would oppose industrialization. He wanted everything to come from below, the responsibility of everyone and wanted the church to be a dynamic leader in the movement. His Easy Essays promoted these ideas.
EASY ESSAY - WHAT MAKES MAN HUMAN
1. To give and not to take
that is what makes man human.
2. To serve and not to rule
that is what makes man human.
3. To help and not to crush
that is what makes man human.
4. To nourish and not to devour
that is what makes man human.
5. And if need be
to die and not to live
that is what makes man human.
6. Ideals and not deals
that is what makes man human.
7. Creed and not greed
that is what makes man human.
In the
Catholic Digest one of the writers wonders why faces in church are so
grim. He was in church with his wife waiting to confess and remembered
the words of a friend. A grandmother in the
confessional didn't speak so the priest asked her to confess her
sins.... "Father living is sin." He laughed at the words of his
friend but they continued to reverberate in his mind while waiting to
confess.
He
recalls the look on his own face and those he sees in the church:
soldiers on the battle field, or like the walking dead. Even when
praying the grim face doesn't disappear. What should his face express
when praying? He asks himself.
When
he was in the States he was called back to Korea when his mother was
dying and recalls the peaceful look on his mother's face at death.
On
the day he was preparing for confession the Gospel at the Mass was from
Matt. 11:28-30. "Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened,
and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. Yes,my yoke is easy and my burden light."
Thoughts usually are expressed on our faces. Should not the words of Jesus
become so much a part of oneself that they find expression on our faces?
During
the liturgical year we have two Sundays in which the celebrant of the
Mass wears rose vestments: Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent
and Laetare Sunday the fourth of Lent, both words can be translated
rejoice. Joy is the hallmark of a Christian and Pope Francis in his message
to us wrote about the Joy of the Gospel.
In Korean as in English we do often distinguish between Joy, happiness and
pleasure. Without much thought we can say that joy is internal,
happiness has to do with the emotions and pleasure with the body. All
are important and valuable, but the one that should always be present is joy
which does not depend on external stimuli and lasts.
